Erie's Buffalo Bills fans savor return to playoffs

The bar was full of Buffalo Bills fans, but they weren't ready to celebrate a win over the Dolphins.

All eyes were on the televisions as the Cincinnati-Baltimore game came to an end.

Cincinnati needed to complete an improbable rally in the final minute to help the Bills secure a playoff berth.

"It was really tense in here, because everyone was hoping that Cincinnati could pull out the win and send the Bills to the playoffs," said Jeff Johnson, the chapter president of the Erie County Bills Backers.

Then the Bengals' Andy Dalton completed a fourth-down-and-12 pass to Tyler Boyd for a 49-yard touchdown, launching the Bills into the postseason.

"When the Bengals won, everyone was sky high," Johnson said. "It was almost like winning the Super Bowl."

After getting some help from Cincinnati on Sunday, the Buffalo Bills clinched their first playoff spot since Jan. 8, 2000. They will play the Jacksonville Jaguars today. The 17-season playoff drought was the longest current streak among any major professional sports team.

Many young fans can't remember a Buffalo playoff appearance.

"This is the first time in my lifetime that I could say the Bills are headed to the playoffs," said Sullivan Johnson, a sophomore at John Carroll and former running back at Cathedral Prep. "I've never seen it. I mean the first quarterback I can remember the Bills having is JP Losman or Drew Bledsoe. In fact, my first Bills jersey was a Bledsoe jersey."

Sullivan Johnson is Jeff Johnson's son, and the two are part of a big group of Bills fans that head to the Colony each Sunday. The Colony Pub & Grille is the only establishment designated as a Bills bar on the Bills Backers website. The next closest Bills bar is in Jamestown (N.Y.).

"When the Bills came around in 1960, they used to play in a place called The Rockpile," said Jack Parks, a Buffalo native who moved to Erie when he was around 12 years old because of his father's business."When we formed the Bills Backers here at the Colony, we had guys that saw the Bills play at The Rockpile. We used to get quite a gang here. It has dropped off a little as some guys have died and some guys go to the games, but we still have a good group."

While other bars and restaurants around Erie fill up with Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns fans, Bills fans have a sanctuary to call their own.

The Johnson and Parks families frequent the Colony, where there are anywhere from 25 to 60 Bills fans on a given Sunday.

"Up until college, I'd be here every Sunday with my dad and my brothers unless we went to a game," Sullivan Johnson said. "We would bring friends and have a great time."

Jeff Johnson recalled what it was like to go through losing four straight Super Bowls in the 1990s "without losing one single fan. That's how loyal the Bills fans are."

Johnson's older son J.J. and his son J.J. are headed to Jacksonville for the game, while the rest of the Johnson family will gather in front of a television to see the Bills in the playoffs for the first time in almost two decades.

The Bills Backers families continue to grow as Parks' son, Jim, and his kids are all big Bills fans as well.

"I definitely became a fan because of my dad, and I've loved this sport and team since I was a kid," said Jim Parks while wearing a Jim Kelly jersey. "I never wavered through the tough times. After the Bills won on Sunday, I got up and walked away on fourth down assuming the Bengals were about to lose. I looked back just in time to see a perfect pass to Tyler Boyd for the touchdown. I couldn't believe it. I was in shock. We've waited so long to get the monkey off our backs."

With Bills signs and flags decorating the bar, the diehard fans are enjoying every second of what happened last Sunday, and what could come in the future.

"We had some help from Andy Dalton, love him, and the fund that Bills fans are putting together for his charity is incredible," Jack Parks said. "It's great to watch these games with family, and how can you turn down red, white and blue?"

Tom Reisenweber can be reached at 870-1707 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNreisenweber.

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